The world changing that was being done was being done together, not in opposition and the general feeling was we serve God best when we serve together. This is not a magical formula that will prevent sexual abuse but it is worth thinking about.
This is how I see it. I think masculinity and femininity together are the truest representation of God. I think in almost every case, adding women's voices to the equation, governance, decision making, etc...makes for better decisions, more wise, etc.
God is not female, never was, and is never described as such in the Bible.
I have great concern for those who embrace this view since it essentially means replacing God and Jesus with some other god or goddess.
mike wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2026 10:04 am
That's all good, I think, but is there a reason we can't just simply place the blame on the individual. There are people who grew up in a conservative Anabaptist culture that was similar to what you describe who now appear make it their business (literally) to routinely critique the entire culture because of bad actors who were in that culture or because their home was dysfunctional. Human nature is what it is, and within any culture there are humans who are prone to sin. I feel like we are a little quick to blame other things sometimes when the reality is, the individual himself chose to sin.
An obvious question to ask is "What does the Bible teach?"
The Bible teaches to flee immorality and also teaches to mark those who engage in immorality and name their sin in front of the whole church. Unwillingness to do this leads to the kind of problems the Duggar family had.
In short, they were not following the traditions taught in the New Testament, and if they had things would have turned out much better for them.
The world changing that was being done was being done together, not in opposition and the general feeling was we serve God best when we serve together. This is not a magical formula that will prevent sexual abuse but it is worth thinking about.
This is how I see it. I think masculinity and femininity together are the truest representation of God. I think in almost every case, adding women's voices to the equation, governance, decision making, etc...makes for better decisions, more wise, etc.
God is not female, never was, and is never described as such in the Bible.
I have great concern for those who embrace this view since it essentially means replacing God and Jesus with some other god or goddess.
This is how I see it. I think masculinity and femininity together are the truest representation of God. I think in almost every case, adding women's voices to the equation, governance, decision making, etc...makes for better decisions, more wise, etc.
God is not female, never was, and is never described as such in the Bible.
I have great concern for those who embrace this view since it essentially means replacing God and Jesus with some other god or goddess.
I agree. God is not female. Never was.
And God doesn't have "feminine traits", whatever those are.
joshuabgood wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2026 1:06 pm
What is a woman, JohnH?
I'm not a biologist.
The fact that you can’t give us a straight answer about something as fundamental as what a woman is underscores the dangers of the kind of progressive ideology that we are hearing about.
barnhart wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2026 7:56 am
I'm still thinking about the cultural elements of the Dugger family and Gothard that trouble me. Beside isolating women and girls to service roles (and removing men and boys from contact from service roles) there is also active teaching the boys are being called to greater things, to change the world, to be the "Joshua generation" who slays culture and takes possession of enemy ground for God.
I was raised in a culture that was structured in opposition to this in several ways. First, men did service work. They cared for children and infants, it was normal to see men with an infant and even a diaper bag, especially on Sundays to give Mom a little break. Men cooked and shopped for food, not as often and maybe not as well but they did it. About every third carry-in meal was done by the men and it was very well done. Men (along side women) cleaned the church house.
Secondly women were not sequestered to inside work. Some were more than others due to circumstances but some milked cows, drove tractors, hung wallpaper for new construction homes, taught school alongside men and and had various other jobs.
The world changing that was being done was being done together, not in opposition and the general feeling was we serve God best when we serve together. This is not a magical formula that will prevent sexual abuse but it is worth thinking about.
As far as I can tell, all of the young men I teach can cook, and help with housekeeping. I have actually seen one of the young gals change a tire. Men are expected to serve in children’s ministry. I suspect it was similar to yours.
Grace wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2026 9:29 am
As for the Gospel according to Gothard, years ago we were in a church setting that strongly supported Gothard. Everyone was encouraged to attend at least one of Gothard's teaching seminars. His teachings were so glorified, to the point that if you never attended any of his Institute of Basic Life Principles seminars, you were deemed a lesser spiritual person. However, I had a friend who attended one of his Seminars at the Hershey Stadium. And she was prophetic when she said, he comes across as a "creep". I never went to any of his events so I felt I couldn't make a fair evaluation. But it turned out her evaluation of him was right.
When I was a young adult, I quickly learned that the most important thing to do when you heard the name “Gothard.”